Here’s a great article and short video about the pilot mentoring project we’re carrying out in partnership with Lutheran Refugee Services (LRS) in Lancaster, Pennsylvania!
In her June 24 article for the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era, “Mentorship Program Brings Career Guidance to Refugees,” Mary Beth Schweigert writes about how the New American Mentoring Project “aims to help refugees move beyond entry-level jobs by creating long-term career plans and deeper community connections.”
On the LIRS side, the project is the work of our program Higher, which provides newcomer workforce solutions to corporations across the United States while supporting career entry and advancement for resettled refugees and other new Americans. Begun as RefugeeWorks, Higher has served as the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement’s training and technical assistance arm for employment and self-sufficiency activities for 15 years.
The article quotes LIRS Program Manager Rebecca Armstrong as saying:
Lancaster has shown to be a warm and welcoming community. It’s been pretty remarkable to see the number of mentors [LRS Lancaster program coordinator Ellen Willenbecher] has been able to recruit in a pretty short period of time.
We’re grateful to LRS in Lancaster for the incredible work they’ve put into this project, and appreciate the coverage in the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era!